


of stars and soulmates

by zhonqli



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, M/M, STING IS A POKEMON NERD YOU CAN’T CHANGE MY MIND, rogue and sting are gay as fuck please just kiss already, rogue’s voice is warm and deep for sting, sting is a sad bean pls help him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26077384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhonqli/pseuds/zhonqli
Summary: sting definitely hadn’t expected to meet his soulmate at mcdonald’s in the middle of the night.
Relationships: Mentioned Yukino Aguria/Minerva Orland, Rogue Cheney/Sting Eucliffe
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	of stars and soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!! oh my i really fell in love with these two!!
> 
> there’s just a bit of explanation that i need to tell u guys about the soulmates thing. in this au, when soulmates touch each other for the first time, a searing pain will engulf them, like a sort of sacrifice before you accept an eternity with your other half. after you accept it, when you guys touch again, there'll be no pain anymore!! 
> 
> i’ve been wanting to post this for a while so i hope u guys enjoy! also this is not beta-read so pls excuse my mistakes!

* * *

☀

sting definitely hadn’t expected to meet his soulmate at mcdonald’s in the middle of the night. 

the blond’s day has been pretty normal and somehow nothing new happened—if you live sting’s life, that’s something to be thankful for even if it sucks sometimes since things can be much worse. 

sting woke up feeling like shit as usual and has been late in his first class because he stayed up all night playing pokemon with the thought ‘ _i_ _must defeat all the gym leaders’_ even if he hasn’t finished his long due project in biology yet and hey, that’s to be passed next week. he knows that he should stop procrastinating but he’s stressed as fuck so what can he do? playing is his coping mechanism, thank you very much. also, minerva might give him a punch or two and yukino (her soulmate) will probably lecture him about slacking off but he found himself not really caring about everything anymore at this point. 

besides, he’s sure natsu will support him. he’s his best friend, after all (and they share the same braincell). 

so, after hours of tiring classes (he actually finds classes fun when he’s not tired and not having an existential crisis; also, natsu skipped classes so it became even more tiring) sting headed to the small café he’s working at—just a couple blocks away from their campus and well, spent the entire night there, talking to faceless people even if he just wants to go home already and play with his cat, lector. this is very unusual for him, he could say, since talking to people is his forte; he loves socializing. of course, his behavior didn’t go unnoticed by his co-workers and some regulars since he’s been like this for weeks already; quiet and exhausted. sting isn’t like this—he’s loud and bright and all smiles and sunshine but college life’s just becoming more shitty as days pass by and all the stress he’s felt for months just made everything worse. 

at least his co-workers are considerate enough. orga shared his brownie with him and rufus even offered to lend sting his favorite novel (he politely declined since he doesn’t want to accidentally break the book). 

“it’s such a shame, sting! well, if you won’t take this then i’ll just give you some coffee; don’t worry, i’ll pay for it.” 

“thanks, rufus. you’re a great guy.”

when his shift ends, he immediately goes back to his dorm, relief washing over him because he can finally stop interacting with people for today. sting hates to admit it, but he’s definitely not acting like himself at all and hates more the fact that there’s nothing he can do about it; one day he just started feeling like shit and ever since then the feeling of hollowness and the dull ache in his chest didn’t leave his system anymore. 

he just hopes his soulmate isn’t going through something like this also and living their life to the fullest. 

oh. 

oh, right, soulmates. it slipped off his mind, hasn’t been thinking about them for a while and sting for a moment feels a pang of guilt about that thought but quickly disregards it; he doesn’t even know who his soulmate is—but he’s been a hopeless romantic ever since he was a child! and hey, he loves the thought that in this wretched world, he has someone that’ll be his most formidable ally and perhaps someone that he’ll cherish till the end of his life. 

_someday,_ sting thinks. 

mindlessly, sting’s gaze goes to the little black dragon mark on his wrist and feels himself slowly smiling. his heart immediately warms at the sight; having a soulmate that also loves dragons like him? a dream come true! everyone usually finds the mark on his wrist edgy and somehow ‘evil’ since it’s dark and it looks scary but who cares? that’s not what he feels. how could something deemed by other persons ‘evil’ make his stomach flutter with butterflies whenever he looks at it? still smiling, sting gently trails his fingers over the mark, eventually feeling better and lets out a sigh. 

“i hope you’re doing okay. i just want to meet you already.”

lector just meows in agreement. 

☀

it’s already 11:30 pm and sting still hasn’t had his dinner (at least he’s already finished his project and it’s still not next week! also, he changed his mind; he doesn’t want to be punched by minerva). his stomach doesn’t agree, though. his organs are definitely mad at him. 

“what the fuck, did natsu eat all of ‘em?” the blond curses under his breath and continues to rummage through his fridge and cupboards for something to eat but found nothing but stale bread, probably molding already. as if mocking him, the growling of his stomach becomes louder and sting lets out a frustrated whine; it seems like luck doesn’t really want to side with him and wants his life to be harder than it already is. for a moment, he considers eating the bread just so his stomach won’t protest anymore but shakes that thought off quickly. he’s just going to have more problems if he does that. 

...well, speaking of food, sting suddenly remembers that there’s a newly built mcdonald’s nearby his dorm. he can just walk for a few minutes and finally his stomach won’t protest anymore, and then he can go home and sleep happily. maybe his choice of dinner doesn’t really pass the healthy meter but hey, it‘s not like he has other options, right? plus he loves their burger so it’s a win-win. 

_that‘s_ _a_ _deal, then,_ he thinks. 

sighing, the blond teen grabs a sweater (unsurprisingly, it has a pikachu design on the front), his phone, and his wallet before locking his door and heading to the fast-food chain. 

☀

a few moments later, with a lot of cursing and his stomach growling, sting finally sits in the only table available (the place is unbelievably packed with people even if it’s already midnight) with his order and starts opening his burger’s paper wrapper. the smell of the food is already enough to wash away the frustration sting felt for the whole day and when he takes a big bite, he feels like he’s in heaven (this time, his stomach definitely agrees). 

the blond roams his eyes around the fast-food chain whilst taking little bites from his burger (he still has two burgers left but he wants to savor its taste) and notices that the people in the place are mostly college students also, looking dead inside (and outside). the branch itself is small but it’s still surprising to see many people lounging around, especially in the middle of the night. he silently thanks every gods that he knew that fortunately there aren’t kids around —though he doubts their parents are sane enough to let their children eat at mcdonald's at literally 12 am, because if ever there are, he isn’t sure if he’s going to survive through all the noise. 

as he entertains himself by looking at the crowd and guessing the reasons why they’re here (of course besides the food), sting thinks he heard footsteps near him but shrugs it off. the place is full, after all. 

after a while, though, he hears something again; this time more louder and definitely a chair being pulled. a frown makes it way to his visage because that definitely sounded so near, almost like the person took the other chair in front of him. which is absolutely possible, since his table is the only available one in the place. still biting the burger, sting slowly turns his face around towards the source of the noise and is welcomed by a sight so breathtaking (literally, as he feels like he can’t _breathe)._

_‘fuck.’_

sting never wanted to cry so bad in his life as much as he wants right now because 1) piercing crimson orbs bore into him and sting swallows audibly. he hopes the other man thinks it’s because of the burger and not him and 2) when he moves his gaze to take in the guy’s face wholly—high nose, pale skin, and plump lips (he’s also dark-haired, sting just wants to scream), he finally _chokes,_ some bits of his burger coming out of his mouth and _miraculously_ didn’t go to pretty boy’s _(what the fuck,_ sting thinks) fries. 

heat then suddenly rushes to sting’s cheeks down to his collarbones, flushing in embarrassment. life really hates him, didn’t it? he’s pretty sure the tips of his ears are also red right now. “i-i—” with his voice cracking, stings open his mouth to apologize, or maybe say anything that can bring back his dignity in front of handsome-guy-with-red-eyes but nothing comes out, just incoherent noises that definitely made him more look idiotic than he already has. 

_fuckmylifefuckmylifefuckmylifefuckmy—_

“uh.” looking down a bit, pretty boy clears his throat and puts his right hand on his face, covering his mouth. sting, frozen, notices the guy’s shoulders shaking a bit _(what?)._ his face looks impassive but his eyes are definitely tearing up from stopping his laughter. 

suddenly offended, sting squawks. “h-hey! don’t laugh!” that didn’t stop his already red cheeks from getting redder, though. 

coughing (the blond now can definitely hear the chuckles coming from pretty boy’s lips), the said lad looks up, his features straightened again as if nothing happened (seriously, how do people manage to do that?) although his eyes are still dancing with mirth. 

with his lower lip jutted out to a pout, sting averts his gaze and takes a sudden interest in his own fries, willing the heat in his cheeks to go away. “sorry about that.” he mumbles. the dark-haired lad just laughs in response (sting doesn‘t know why it greatly warmed his heart) and then he speaks, “it’s okay. that happens to me all the time. i’m rogue. you are?” 

rogue’s voice is deep and smooth and it (unfortunately) sent shivers down sting’s spine. now, if other people were to hear rogue speak, they’ll probably assume that he’s cold and emotionless but in sting’s case, he finds warmth in it, the kind of warmth he feels when he’s at home, scratching lector’s ears, and drinking hot chocolate while it’s raining outside or when he’s reading a great novel. it’s soothing and so warm that it made sting want to just curl up on his bed and listen to it all day. 

“hey, are you okay?” 

rogue’s voice breaks sting out of his trance, his face now somewhat showing an expression between concern and curiosity. once again, sting feels his cheeks getting hotter (he doesn’t know how it’s possible) and coughs to hide the whimper threatening to come out of his lips. the situation right now is more embarrassing than him peeing in his pants in 4th grade while presenting in front of their class (hey, he was nervous!). 

“uhm, yeah, i’m f-fine?” sting responds, his voice cracking at the end of his sentence, all of a sudden _high and breathy._ rogue doesn’t seem convinced, though, but he just shakes his head as if to shrug it off and proceeds to poke sting‘s cheek. 

which proves to be a wrong idea. 

“i still don‘t know your na—”

suddenly, white-hot pain engulfs sting‘s whole’s body, as if electricity replaced the blood in his veins and his body feels like it‘s on fire, hurting so bad that sting can’t even stop the pained gasp that tore from his throat. with tears brimming in his eyes and his breaths coming out fast and shallow, sting manages to croak out, “w-what the fuck?” 

focusing his gaze onto rogue’s figure (which is very hard, by the way, with the pain still clouding his mind), he realizes that the raven also felt the pain that suddenly engulfed him from the way he hissed and quickly retracted his hand, as if burned. 

just as the pain came quickly, the pain also faded pretty fast the moment rogue’s touch left his skin, although his fingers are still tingly. blinking hard to remove the tears in his eyes, sting observes the lad in front of him: rogue’s visage is unreadable, with his lips pulled in a thin line though wonder and calculation are evident in his eyes (sting’s vision is still blurry but he can’t be wrong). at the back of his mind, an idea is already forming, like broken pieces turning into one but sting’s trashed mind isn’t able to fully comprehend it for the fact that it’s too unreal to happen (or maybe he just didn’t expect to meet _him_ in a fast-food chain). 

for a few moments, the only sounds that can be heard are the conversations and laughter of the other people in the place and sting’s own heart trashing against his rib cage. the blond uses that moment to think about what happened further and the more he thinks about it, the more his thoughts become clear and as realization dawns on him, he can’t help but gape at the man in front of him. in his head, his brain screams at him, saying, _took you long enough!_

“show me your mark.” rogue mumbles, his voice slightly trembling like he’s talking to someone so important to him. he’s staring right into sting’s eyes, his crimson orbs soft, as if he’s finally found his home and sting just wants to weep, this time not in pain but in happiness. 

with his hands shaking, he shows rogue the   
black dragon mark on his wrist and he hears the raven’s sudden intake of breath. in response, rogue rolls the collar of his turtleneck down and reveals a mark identical to his own on his neck, but in color white. 

_“soulmates...”_ rogue whispers in amazement. sting’s lower lip quivers as he nods in affirmation. “yes,” he breathes out. “soulmates.”

as their eyes clashed, azure to crimson, rogue breaks out into a wide grin, his canines showing in the process. it’s a unique look on rogue’s face, compared to his impassive one earlier and sting feels himself slowly falling into his magic more. 

“hey, you know, you still didn’t give me your name, mr. i-choked-on-my-burger-and-spit-it-out.” the raven muses and sting, realizing that indeed, he still hasn’t given rogue his name, clears his throat, though crimson still painted his features. rogue’s nickname for him didn’t even offend him. 

“i’m sting. sting eucliffe.” he breathes out. 

rogue just nods and says, “my last name’s cheney.” 

a comfortable silence drapes over them then, both just relishing in each other’s comfort, still not believing that they’re each other’s half. when the crowd in mcdonald’s starts to thin, with their foods and hunger already long forgotten, sting reaches for rogue’s hand, the one that poked him earlier, and intertwines their fingers. 

this time, instead of white-hot pain, warmth seeps into his bones, his heart now calm and beating faintly along with rogue’s pulse. a grin takes its place on his lips, a genuine one, something he hasn’t done in months and when rogue laughs, sting finds himself laughing along with his soulmate, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are appreciated! also comment below if you guys think i should make a part two of this or maybe a series! <3


End file.
